For more information about any of these announcements, please contact Maria Schiller.

For general advertising inquires please contact Jodi Lyons.

Reader to Reader: I Made Over My Office's Kitchen!

April 2008 by Shape Magazine Staff

"Last year I helped start a nutrition team at my company, TheLadders.com. We petitioned for healthy snacks. Now our kitchen is stocked with lowfat string cheese, almonds, and yogurt - not greasy chips. Everyone's eating better and has more energy." - Jane Hugentober, 31, New York City

The Bald Truth About CEOs

March 13, 2008 by Del Jones

CEOs seem to instinctively know that it's better to be authoritative than indecisive. They know about the vision thing and the passion thing. They even know a few leadership lessons that aren't taught in business school such as, it helps to be tall.

But an unscientific survey of USA TODAY's panel of CEOs and other evidence suggest that baldness might be a blind spot for many.

There was a lower response rate than for surveys on other topics, but 95% of the 74 who responded said, if given a choice, they would rather be bald than short. More telling is that the 31 CEOs who identified themselves as bald or "headed in that direction" in the unscientific survey were unanimous in saying that being vertically challenged is more detrimental to an aspiring executive's career.

USA TODAY asked TheLadders to follow up with a survey. The job-search site for high-income professionals got 1,138 responses. Half said they still had as much hair as they did when teens, while 15% said they were bald, and 35% said they were headed in that direction. Among all respondents to the unscientific survey, 67% said 2 inches more in height would be better for career success, vs. 33% who said a full head of hair.

Fast Track to the Top: Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com

March 2008 by Lisa Gschwandtner

2003: Marc Cenedella founds TheLadders.com.

2008: TheLadders.com is now the #1 worldwide source for $100k+ jobs.

What TheLadders.com Does: Hosts 80,000 jobs a week through eight specially targeted sites geared to experienced industry professionals and the recruiters and employers looking to hire them. 10,000 new positions are added each week.

The Concept: After Monster and Yahoo started a buyout bidding war which Yahoo won, Cenedella decided to build a system that would reverse the model and charge the job seeker $30 a month or $180 a year for a high-salary search that would serve as a screening mechanism to make sure there were only really good candidates calling on companies.

The Result: More than 1.7 million subscribers. 361,888 on SalesLadder. 200 employees. Presence in the UK.

Is It a Recession? Marketers Seem to Think So

January 28, 2008 by Stuart Elliot

Let the economists and politicians debate whether the American economy is in a recession. Madison Avenue is already battening down the hatches.

Since September, Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's largest retailer, has built its entire current advertising approach upon this bald premise: "Save money. Live better."

Customers can find plenty of companies following Wal-Mart's lead, with many campaigns speaking to Americans as if a recession were already under way.

But while many marketers may be looking to adjust the contents of their campaigns, forecasters believe overall advertising spending will remain strong as a recession looms.

Here are some other campaigns suggesting that advertisers already believe the wolf is at the door:

TheLadders.com, a job Web site, sent e-mail messages last Monday bearing this subject line: "Recession is coming, get your job insurance now!"

The List: The Web Secrets of FT Readers

January 26, 2008 by Bob Ivins of comScore, Inc

There are many ways of tracking internet usage. ComScore, Inc measures the online behaviour of a globally representative sample of more than 2m consumers' browsing and buying habits. We then map this data on to the wider population, so audience sizes for websites such as FT.com, online categories such as social networking, and geographic regions can be estimated and a picture of the average internet user developed. Because comScore tracks users, we are able to measure cross-visitation - for example, what other sites do British users of FT.com visit? Using data collected in December 2007 and analysed in January 2008, here's what we found.

Careers Most Popular Site: TheLadders.com - FT.com users were seven and a half times more likely than the average internet user to access this site, which specialises in positions paying £50,000+ per annum and had 245,000 unique visitors in December 2007.

Do Job Hunters Need Camouflage?

January 26, 2008 by Diane Stafford

On one hand, we have news of layoffs and news of fears of layoffs. On the other hand, we have survey reports that say most of the U.S. work force is "disengaged" or at least passively looking for work.

Career advisers tell workers to be in charge of their own careers ... to have a Plan B ... to keep their resumes up to date.

Given all that, no one should doubt that workers are scouting the job market while they're currently employed.

Sometimes the boss finds out and takes a hard line: If you want to leave, consider yourself gone as of this moment.

Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of TheLadders.com, a job site for professionals and executives, says that doesn't happen as often as some workers fear. But the discovery of a job search will generate discomfort and possibly some hard feelings.

"The question," he said, "is how mature people are going to be about it. Testing the job market is what it is. It's going to happen."

Cenedella's advice to the boss who discovers an employee is job hunting: "Ask yourself, 'Do I want to keep this person?' If the answer is yes, sit down and say: 'Is something wrong? What can I do to make the situation better?' Don't panic and don't be accusatory."

His advice to the employee who gets discovered: "Specify the problem or the reason why you're looking, and be ready to suggest solutions. Know what it is that you really want and what it will take to keep you." Cenedella also countered what he says is a myth about putting your resume out online while employed.

"Being discovered in a job search is really not all that big a problem," he said. "You have better odds of being struck by lightning in a year than having your boss discover your job search online."

Tory Johnson's Work-From-Home Tips

January 24, 2008 by Tory Johnson

Whether you're looking to contribute to your family's finances or earn some cash to cover special or unexpected expenses, many people want more ways to make money at home.

From freelance to full-time gigs, we have a range of fields and resources below to help guide you in discovering the options that exist. Only you can decide if an opportunity is right for you.

Maximize Online Job Boards:

The big job boards are filled with thousands of work-from-home opportunities. The key is to search all of these Web sites by using the words "virtual" or "home-based" when looking for opportunities advertised online.

TheLadders.com, which focuses on positions paying in more than $100,000 annually and requires a monthly fee to join, features a wide range of senior-level positions from home in sales, technology, finance and marketing.

A Job Site for '$100K+ People': Avoid the Commoners

January 23, 2008 by Jeremy Mullman

A print, online and TV campaign from newly hired agency Fallon, Minneapolis, shows a tennis court mobbed by too many players, many of whom, a closer inspection shows, are either overweight, elderly, poorly groomed or dressed shabbily. "Quick, find the most talented player," the print copy reads. "[Ordinary job-search sites] let everybody play, so nobody wins."

The exclusive, country-club attitude befits TheLadders' business model. Unlike the larger and better-known jobs sites, it costs $180 a year (or $30 a month) to use and restricts membership and listings to "$100k+ people looking for $100k+ jobs."

The site boasts 1.7 million registered readers or subscribers (though not all are paying) and typically features about 70,000 active job listings.

The tone of its spots, Chief Marketing Officer Robert Turtledove said, is markedly different from those used by CareerBuilder and Monster, which have tended to focus on job seekers' unhappiness at their current workplaces. "So much of it is 'I'm surrounded by monkeys or jackasses' or 'It's a jungle out there.' It's a bit negative," Mr. Turtledove said, ticking through recent CareerBuilder slogans. "We're telling people, 'There's a place where you can stand out."

My Hunt for Work-at-Home Job Boards - And Pie

January 16, 2008 by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Whenever I post about telecommuting or working from home, I hear a bunch of smack from those of you who'd like to do just that. So I should point you to a short Q&A in The Wall Street Journal in Sue Shellenbarger's column on how to find just such a job.

Not to be outdone, I did (five minutes of) reporting myself. Shellenbarger doesn't mention TheLadders.com, which caters exclusively to job seekers who want salaries of $100,000 or more. Which - let's face it, folks - is all of us, right? Who the heck wants minimum wage when we could be pulling 100 Gs? (The catch, of course, is that the jobs favor workers already making that much. Talk about the rich getting richer.)

I went to visit the offices at TheLadders.com a while ago. It's this neat loft space in downtown Manhattan, jammed with young people tapping away at computers. The outfit is run by this excitable dude named Marc Cenedella whose resumé included stints as a senior exec at HotJobs and a pet-food salesman in Japan. (He likes to take his top managers to my home country on annual junkets that have something to do with learning customer service techniques.)

Anyway, I logged onto TheLadders this morning to see what they had in the way of work-at-home or flexible jobs. Even under the free account, you can browse available jobs by region, industry and rank. I looked for marketing jobs because a) everybody knows writer pay is crap and b) I think I know what marketing is, while I'm not at all sure what people in "tech telecom" do (sell phones? wire phones?).

And there it is: a selection for "work-at-home jobs," listing 143 openings. For instance, there's an ad for something called a Games Services Manager that allows the person to telecommute to the HQ in Montreal (to apply, I'd have to sign up for a paid account of $30 a month or $180 a year). I could also be a Carbon Analyst Evaluator or a Customer Loyalty Director or a Food-Service Manager. For six figures! Working in my PJs! Hot dog!

Water Cooler: $100,000 Jobs Not So Easy To Find In Tampa

January 13, 2008 by Times Staff

When it comes to hot markets for jobs paying more than $100,000, Tampa Bay is positively chilly. So says TheLadders.com, an online service that tracks hiring patterns in 20 major cities. The hottest $100,000-plus job markets range from New York and San Francisco to Seattle and Chicago. Tampa and Detroit continue to be among the tightest markets in the 20 markets surveyed. For $100,000+ jobs, the survey says PriceWaterhouseCoopers, MetLife and JPMorgan Chase tend to post the most jobs in the pay range. And which companies do those surveyed most want to work for in the area? Ceridian, L-3 Communications and Wachovia. For every job paying $100,000 or more here, there are on average eight candidates.

What Your CEO Drives Says A Lot About The Dude

December 11, 2007 by Del Jones

How the boss gets to work might seem a relatively innocuous thing. But people pay close attention to what their CEO drives. Only 10% of nearly 3,000 people asked didn't know what their chief drives, according to a survey by TheLadders.com, a job-search site for those making $100,000-plus. While that might not represent the typical employee, it shows that there is a keen interest in what kind of wheels the person at the helm of the company has.

BMW was the most popular make driven by the C-level executives on the survey TheLadders.com conducted for USA TODAY. Yet BMWs accounted for only 13% of the total, followed by Ford at 7% and Lexus at 5%. A separate USA TODAY survey of 90 CEOs found 13% drive a BMW, 12% a Mercedes and 10% a Toyota.

Of the nearly 3,000 who responded to TheLadders' survey, 116 identified themselves as C-level executives. Of those 116, 76% said their car "says something about me," the same percentage as non-executive respondents. Seven percent said that they have intentionally tried to hide their car from co-workers, vs. 9% of all respondents, while 5% of executives have timed their departure at the end of the day so that more people get a glimpse of their car, the same percentage as all respondents. Two percent of C-level execs said they have pretended that someone else's car was their own, more than the 1% of all respondents.

RELAXED FIT: Watch Out Power Suit. In The Office, Khakis Are Beating The Pants Off You.

September 11, 2007 by Jackie Farwell

"Bosses are much more concerned with the quality of your work than the price of your clothes," said Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com, a job website for high-end professionals, which conducted the survey.

The trend appears to be catching on: 42.2 percent of executives said more companies are adopting a less formal dress code, and 22.3 percent said the definition of "business casual" has stretched to include attire such as jeans.

The nonscientific survey was conducted online in August and included more than 1,100 executives who earn $100,000 or more annually and are members of TheLadders.com.

Firms Hit Wall On Tech Hiring

September 3, 2007 by Amanda Fung

High-tech employees are virtually so hard to find in New York City that some firms are giving up and expanding elsewhere, threatening one of the city's fastest-growing industries.

Not all tech employers are ready to give up on the Big Apple. Some companies are pouring more money into recruiting efforts. It used to be common to offer employees $250 to $500 per referral, but now companies are paying thousands, said Rick Dionisio, a director at executive search firm Staffmark. Manhattan-based online job site TheLadders.com offers employees bonuses of up to $5,000.

The talent shortage is also forcing companies to be more creative. TheLadders.com plans to rent out a billiard parlor in the city in October and host a one-day event of fun and games where local techies can win cash prizes. It will be a first for the 4-year-old company, which has grown to 146 employees.

David Carvajal, a vice president at TheLadders.com, doesn't know how much the event is going to cost yet, but if the company spends $20,000 and can find two or three good people, he said, the event will be worth it.

"We are not ready to abandon New York," said Mr. Carvajal. "Talent is here, you just need to know how to compete."

The Care And Feeding Of References

September 2, 2007 by Phyllis Korkki

Q. Will some employers refuse to give references, even if you were a good employee, because of fears of lawsuits?

A. Legal experts warn of the dangers of giving references, both bad and good. A bad reference can draw the ire of a candidate who isn't hired, and a good one can anger an employer who later regrets hiring someone. That is why some companies make it a policy to provide only the most basic information, no matter how stellar the employee was.

Co-workers who have moved to a different company are particularly valuable as references because they may no longer be bound by the former employer's policy, according to TheLadders.com, a Web site for high-salary job seekers.

Surfing For Six-Figure Posts

August 7, 2007 by Teresa M. McAleavy

Maybe you're already out of work. Or it's clear your seat at the company's table will be gone once the restructuring is complete.

The question is, would you pay to find your next paycheck?

If you're among those individual executives who earn at least six figures, the answer increasingly is "yes" these days. Instead of waiting for a headhunter to call or going to some job-placement agency with limited resources, plenty of top earners are paying to use the Web to land their next lucrative gig.

Instead of posting her resume on free job sites, Morristown's Renee De Franco focused on those geared toward filling executive positions. The $30 she paid each month to join TheLadders.com proved fruitful. She's currently vice president-human resources at Symrise Inc., a chemicals maker in Teterboro that specializes in fragrances and food flavoring. She found the position on TheLadders.com.

"I just found the quality of the jobs listed by TheLadders, plus the ease of using the site, to be well worth it," De Franco says. "Yes, they charged a fee, but I had access to positions I didn't see anywhere else."

TheLadders.com took a chance in 2003 that folks in the six-figure league would be willing to pay to find their next job when the company debuted with its paid job-search service for the $100K-plus executive market. Since then, it says it has grown from two employees to more than 100, who service more than 1.4 million paying subscribers. And it counts Microsoft, JP Morgan, eBay, Google and other companies among its corporate clients.

In Hunt for High Pay, Be Specific

July 31, 2007 by Sarah E. Needleman

When Scott Wood began his search for a job paying around $130,000 earlier this year, he did what many senior professionals do. He reached out to recruiters at executive-search firms about his interest in a senior law position at a large East Coast company. But recruiters typically pursue job candidates, rather than the other way around, so it wasn't surprising that his efforts failed to generate any interviews.

Eventually, Mr. Wood, 36 years old, tried TheLadders.com, a job site that advertises positions only if they pay salaries of $100,000 or more. Within a few weeks of signing up, he says, he applied to 40 employers, landed six interviews and secured three job offers. In April he accepted a counsel position at Lowe's Cos., a publicly traded chain of home-improvement superstores based in Mooresville, N.C. "I got the salary I wanted, and I like the benefits," he says.

If you're in the market for a high-paying job, consider narrowing your search to online career resources specifically aimed at experienced professionals. Many job boards that service professionals at all career levels don't list salary ranges, leaving job hunters uncertain as to how a position fits with their financial expectations. Meanwhile, a growing number of lucrative opportunities have been showing up on job sites in the high-paying category in recent years. For example, TheLadders.com now averages about 70,000 job listings at any given time, up from around 40,000 in 2005, according to a company spokeswoman.

Hunting For Another Job On The QT

July 31, 2007 by Diane Stafford

Some surveys say that up to two-thirds of workers are at least passively looking for different jobs. And it's not uncommon for employers to find out employees are searching, leading to all kinds of loyalty vs. betrayal issues.

Here's how one online job board is addressing that problem. At TheLadders.com, a job site aimed at the executive-level job market, a confidentiality feature has been introduced to protect job hunters until they want to be "outed."

The "Bio Confidentiality" option lets workers post their biographic information ? basically, the stuff they'd put on a resume ? without revealing their names or their current employers.

Job recruiters can scroll through the bio section and contact promising candidates through the Web site, but they'll only learn the identification details attached to a bio if the candidate chooses to respond.

$100,000-A-Year Jobs Are Out There: More Of Them Are Offered In The Buffalo Area Than You Might Think, Recruiters Say

July 23, 2007 by Matt Glynn

Jobs paying $100,000 or more are a dream opportunity for Buffalo Niagara residents.

The challenge, of course, is finding such high-paying positions in a regional economy not known for robust employment or wage growth. But they're out there.

From June 2006 to June 2007, about 4,100 jobs paying more than $100,000 or more were offered within a 100-mile radius of Buffalo, according to TheLadders.com, a Web site started by a Fredonia native.

Using that radius, the jobs could be in places as far away as outside of Toronto, east of Rochester, or around Erie, Pa. But Marc Cenedella, the founder of TheLadders.com, said it indicates high-paying jobs are out there, even if some of them are a bit of a drive from Buffalo.

That "quiet" approach toward filling high-paying jobs gave Cenedella the idea to start TheLadders.com. While he was an executive with HotJobs.com, before it was sold to Yahoo, users would tell him the site was great for middle-management jobs, but not so hot for upper-end jobs.

"I heard that over and over again," said Cenedella, 36.

Cendella's solution: create a site specifically for jobs paying $100,000 or more, and charge job seekers a fee to participate, to try to reduce the pool of candidates to serious job hunters. A job hunter pays $30 a month to belong, or a lower rate by signing up for longer subscriptions.

Why $100,000 as the threshold? The figure represents about the top 10 percent of jobs, he said. "That [dollar amount] is the psychological level people think of as high paying."

The four-year-old site, which is based in New York City, has attracted 30,000 recruiters and 1.4 million members, he said. Within a 100-mile radius of Buffalo, about 450 recruiters are registered to participate in the site.

'Business Casual' Causes Confusion; Are Flip-Flops A Faux Pas? It Can Be Tough To Tell As Line Keeps Moving

July 10, 2007 by Stephanie Armour

Business casual has become a staple of the office, but more companies are trying to enforce rules that set at least a minimum standard of dress, and an increasing number also are enforcing more formal attire -- especially at meetings or on days when clients may visit the office. And as summer heats up and fashion trends become even more laid back, employers are wrestling with how to adopt dress-code policies that encourage both productivity and professionalism.

How employees look can affect how they're perceived: Thirty-six percent of respondents said those who dress casually are perceived as more creative, yet 49% said they run the risk of being taken less seriously, according to a 2006 survey by online job service TheLadders.com. The survey was conducted in August 2006 and included 2,243 executives.

Recipe For Career Success: Invite The Boss To Dinner

June 6, 2007 by Jim Myers

So, you've invited the boss over for dinner. How did that happen, you wonder? What were you thinking?

It happened because somewhere in the back of your mind, you thought it might be good for your career. And you know what? You're probably right.

"Face time with your superiors is critical to career success," says Marc Cenedella, founder and president of TheLadders.com, a job search firm that caters to high-income executives. In a recent study, they found that among social activities with supervisors, dining ranked the highest.

How to Keep Your Job, Or Decide to Leave, If New CEO Arrives

April 24, 2007 by Erin White

In 2005, Rick Snyder learned his company had hired a new chief executive. That led the senior technology executive to wonder, "Am I viewed as one of the previous CEO's guys?" He was well aware that new leaders often bring in their own team.

Many senior executives face that situation when a new CEO arrives. And a study to be published in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review, online tomorrow, indicates good reason for concern. Turnover among senior management increased after the appointment of a new CEO, whether from inside or outside the company, according to the study.

One of the most important steps is to decide whether they want to stay. If a senior executive completely disagrees with the new CEO's strategy or style, then he should find another job, said Marc Cenedella, CEO of TheLadders.com, an executive job-search site. "Make your decision in the first 30 days whether you're on or off the bus," he said. "You're not going to do yourself [or the new CEO] any good if you're half in, half out."

Listing Top Jobs but Charging Candidates to Seek Them

June 4, 2007 by Bob Tedeschi

Recruiters with six-figure jobs to fill know better than to post them online and start a stampede of marginally qualified job seekers. But they also know that the Web is the easiest way to find applicants.

The Web's surprising answer to the problem? Charge them to look.

A growing number of niche sites devoted to high-end jobs are finding that applicants are willing to shell out a few dollars? or a few hundred, in some cases ? for the chance to get access to job ads. The strategy will not help the big online job boards find more applicants for entry-level positions, but analysts say it is ideal for sites like TheLadders.com, ExecuNet and others seeking the senior executive crowd.

Several former HotJobs executives introduced TheLadders.com in 2003, with the mission of posting only those jobs with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. At the time, the company made an odd bet ? that it could attract more applicants if it charged them a monthly entry fee of $30.

That is precisely the opposite of the approach used by mass-market employment sites, which charge applicants nothing but charge companies varying fees to post job openings.

In its early years, TheLadders.com was slow to grow, partly because it did not attract enough job postings to justify the site's cost. But as employers and corporate recruiters learned that they could find qualified applicants for nothing, the number of job postings jumped.

Now, according to Marc Cenedella, the chief executive of TheLadders.com, the site listed 70,000 jobs last week and is on pace to exceed $30 million in sales this year from about 1.4 million subscribers. And the site now counts Microsoft and the EMC Corporation as clients.

"We're doing the same thing that's done in national parks: put a price on it so you get the right number of people," Mr. Cenedella said. Mr. Cenedella said that the company is not yet profitable, but is "cash flow positive." The number of subscribers who hear about the site from word of mouth, he said, has nearly doubled, to 34 percent, in the last three years.

Mr. Cenedella, who was a senior vice president at HotJobs when the company was acquired by Yahoo, said TheLadders would expand in the coming months to include jobs with annual salaries of $75,000 or more. (Only about 10 percent of the roughly 150 million workers in the country earn $100,000 or more, he said, while 20 million earn from $75,000 to $100,000.) Even that lower salary threshold, however, is high enough to attract job candidates who will pay to see the listings.

"We get a lot of people who e-mail us and say they shouldn't have to pay for a job," he said. "Our thing is, if you're a professional consultant, you have to learn how to market yourself. Besides, if I didn't charge, every wannabe in the world would come in."

What Am I Worth?
How To Increase Your Value To Your Company

February 14, 2007 by Tennille M. Robinson

At a time when companies are measuring every business initiative against how it affects the bottom line, do you know what your contributions are worth as an employee? Being able to determine your worth will not only help you leverage monetary compensation but also provide you with better self-awareness about your role within your company.

"I have a radical suggestion for somebody trying to figure out how much their contributions are worth to their [organization]," says Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com, "Ask your boss."

Cenedella contends that the level of conversation between staff and management about meeting the goals of a company is surprisingly low.

"I think it's really ultimately part of the boss' job to explain to people how their contributions in the work place matter to the person's themselves, to their boss, to their group, to their company, to society as a whole. But if your boss hasn't done that, ask."

"If you don't understand how your highly valued skills do or don't play into the company's goals then you are really selling yourself short," he continues. "In any human relationship, it's really about 'what am I capable of and what does this relationship need?' And that's exactly what a working relationship is."

Job-search 101: Experts Recommend The Best Employment Web Sites

January 28, 2007 by Patricia Kitchen

TheLadders.com, a fee-based job site for those earning $100,000 a year and up, was one of 30 sites to receive a 2007 Weddle's User's Choice Award. The award is overseen by Weddle's, a Stamford, Conn.-based research, publishing, consulting and training firm that specializes in recruiting, job search and career management issues. But the choices are actually made as job seekers, recruiters and others in the online employment field cast their votes. Weddle's is run by Peter Weddle, who is also executive director of the International Association of Employment Web Sites - Employmentwebsites.org - a group whose members agree to adhere to certain standards related to privacy and accuracy.

Ken Rose, 53, of Massapequa Park, got a job lead through the site last fall that led to an account manager job with a document management firm in Manhattan. What did he like about the site? He says it caters to those with some workplace seasoning.

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF (PROPERLY)
Being the new player on the team is tough, but you can make an easier entrance with these four steps

December 27, 2006 by Sam Grobart

Making a first impression is tricky business, and overdoing it, even with the best of intentions, is a classic mistake.

You have a critical window of opportunity when you start a new position; botch it and you can wind up paying (in loss of effectiveness, resentful co-workers and no lunch buddies) for months, maybe years.

Remember, "your co-workers thought they were doing pretty well before you showed up," says Marc Cenedella, founder of the executive-search site TheLadders.com.

Product & Services: Executive Searchers

November 2006 by Sara E. Savage

TheLadders.com has launched My Jobs, a new feature on its Web site that allows job seekers looking for executive-level positions to save job postings found on TheLadders.com and import job listings from other sources.

My Jobs allows users to create and store notes about each listing, create reminders and "to do" lists and submit their applications. A tracking calendar can also transfer dates to a printable calendar to ensure that important deadlines are not missed.

Features include: recruiter feedback, suggested job lists, side panel tool bar, featured recruiters and a new main page.

Work-From-Home Tips: Maximize Online Job Boards

November 20, 2006 by Tory Johnson

TheLadders.com, which focuses on positions paying in more than $100,000 annually and requires a monthly fee to join, features a wide range of senior-level positions from home in sales, technology, finance and marketing.

As with any advertised opportunity, you must do your homework to determine if something's right for you. That means talking to a live person and not just relying on an e-mail exchange to learn in-depth about the requirements, challenges and potential earning power.

Best News For Dads (And Their Kids)

November 2006 by Amy Levin-Epstein

The more time you spend with your kids, the better you'll be at your job. In a national survey of executives by TheLadders.com, an online recruitment service, 79 percent of respondents reported that being a father made them better professionals.

Six-Figure Career Track

October/November 2006 by Cora Daniels

Earning six figures does not have to be out of reach.

TheLadders.com, an online job site for jobs with a minimum salary of $100,000, lists more than 30,000 jobs a month. Could you see yourself as the director of table games at a casino in Vegas? A media company is looking for someone to do multicultural market development. Or maybe you are made for vacation – a travel company in Texas is in need of a manager of leisure marketing. Enjoy wine? Winery managers make six figures. So do "shopper researchers" for those of you always at the mall. And who said teachers can't get paid? A pharmaceutical company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is looking for a manager of medical education.

Work Clothes Send Signals: Outfits Are Noticed By Colleagues And Affect How We View Ourselves

October 25, 2006

You dress up for job interviews and meetings with clients. That's a given.

But making a good first impression isn't the only way your fashion style comes into play. Colleagues size up your outfits to decide whether you're stodgy or fun, among other things.

That's according to a recent survey by TheLadders.com, a job site for executives. More than 70 percent of respondents said that employees dressed in suits are seen as more senior-level, while 60 percent believe those workers are taken more seriously. The survey, with a margin of error of 2.08 percentage points, polled more than 2,200 executives.

Here's the downside: Twenty-seven percent of respondents see workers who are buttoned-up as rigid, while 16 percent say they are less creative.

Software Industry Most Popular for Senior-Level Sales

October 17, 2006 by Renee Zemanski

According to TheLadders.com, a company providing the world's leading online recruiting resource to recruiters and job seekers in the $100k+ employment market, the software industry tops the list for the most popular executive-level sales jobs for the second quarter of 2006. Moreover, it looks like it will stay that way through the remainder of 2006, says TheLadders.com CEO Marc Cenedella.

"The Internet has changed how every industry, business, and company interacts with customers, so I expect the software industry to continue to play a leading role in how all of us do business in 2006 and beyond," says Cenedella.

Whether or not companies are in the "hot" industry right now, Cenedella says that they still need a qualified sales team to help them grow their business. And finding that competent team is tough. "The top sales executives are pretty savvy at marketing themselves," says Cenedella. "Companies have to continue to innovate and find the best way to market themselves to connect with the best candidates. That means using new tools, like ours, to help them quickly identify and connect with top talent."

Pay Your Dues, But Be Sure To Get Change

October 11, 2006 by Eve Tahmincioglu

Loyalty in the workplace is scarce, meaning a company where you put in a lot of sweat equity might end up laying you off before you reap your dues-paying benefits. Moreover employees, both right out of school or embarking on new careers, don't want to wait years before they see the big job and the big money.

Take Maria Plantilla, 30, of New York City.

She graduated from the prestigious Williams College with a BA in psychology and had dreams of a management job in human resources. She ended up as a floating office assistant for a headhunting firm getting people coffee and filling in for the receptionist when she went to the bathroom.

"There were times when I thought: 'Is this always going to be my career? Is this what people will always see me as, an office assistant?'" she recalls.

Today she is human resources manager for TheLadders.com, an online recruitment service for $100,000 plus jobs. "I love my job," she raves.

Cracking the Office Dress Code

September 22, 2006 by Laura Rowley

TheLadders.com, an executive-level job-search site, surveyed its members last month and found that 70 percent thought employees dressed in suits are perceived to be senior level; 60 percent said people in more formal attire are more likely to be taken seriously.

While more than one-third of TheLadders.com's respondents thought casually dressed employees were likely to be more creative, nearly half agreed that such people run the risk of being taken less seriously -- especially if they wear jeans.

"If you have to ask yourself if you could get away with wearing a certain outfit to the office, it's best to avoid it," advises Marc Cenedella, CEO of TheLadders.com. "A vital part of succeeding in the office is knowing the company's culture. If the dress code is important to management, you should pay attention to it, too. If management has a relaxed stance, then it's fine to follow their lead."

What Your Clothes Say About You

September 18, 2006

Whether you prefer khakis and a sweater vest or a pinstriped suit, your office threads speak volumes about your personaility, according to a survey by TheLadders.com, an online recruiting resource.

"Presenting yourself in the best possible light, whether you're dressed for a relaxed or formal environment, can help to boost your confidence level," said Marc Cenedella, President and CEO at TheLadders.com

Dressing For Success

September 13, 2006 by Sarah Needleman

Wearing a suit to the office, even if the dress code at your workplace is casual, may boost your professional image, according to a recent survey from TheLadders.com, a job site that lists executive-level openings. Respondents included about 2,000 of the site's members, with incomes of $75,000 or more. Around 70% of the respondents said employees dressed in suits are perceived to be more senior level, while 60% said these folks are taken more seriously.

Office Etiquette

September 12, 2006 by J.W. Elphinstone

Whether you prefer khakis and a sweater vest or a pinstriped suit, your office threads speak volumes about your personality, according to one survey by TheLadders.com, an online recruiting resource.

More traditionally dressed employees are perceived as more senior level, 70 percent of surveyed executives said, while 60 percent said that they're taken more seriously.

"Seventy percent of executives said that clothes can help present the right image. I agree with them," said Marc Cenedella, president and CEO at TheLadders.com. "Presenting yourself in the best possible light, whether you're dressed for a relaxed or formal environment, can help to boost your confidence level."

To Leave, Or Not To Leave?
That Is The Question, Now That Lifelong Employment Is Out, And Job Hopping Is In

August 28, 2006 by Virginia Backaitis

"YOU'RE changing jobs again?" your mother says. She wrings her hands as she speaks. "Where will you be working this month?" your father ribs.

He smiles, but there's concern on his face. This is the second time in eight months you've stopped by to update your contact info on their phones and in their e-mail address books.

"You're supposed to congratulate me on my new position," you remind them. You were in such a great mood before you walked in the door. Your buddies had all been high-fives and handshakes when you told them your news. "Be happy for me," you say. "I'm just worried you're going to get labeled as a job frog," says your mom. "Job hopper," you say. "And I'm not one of those."

"Employers like to see individuals with diverse backgrounds," says David Carvajal of TheLadders.com, a leading job board. He recommends "four or five jobs in 20 years, each with a broader range of experience or a higher rung up the ladder."

Internet Multiplies Options
But Don't Expect To See Top Jobs Listed On Biggest Boards; They're More Likely To Be on Niche Sites

August 27, 2006 by Andrew Smith

Director. Comptroller. Vice president. Companies have traditionally used social networks to fill such top posts discreetly. Even today, the best way to land a senior financial position is to build a great professional reputation with industry colleagues. That said, the Internet is beginning to broaden the field of candidates. More companies are advertising prime jobs online, which means more chances for job seekers – if they know where to look.

"The Internet will never eliminate the need for highly skilled professionals who help companies choose the best candidates for senior jobs," said Marc Cenedella, chief executive at TheLadders.com, an Internet career site that specializes in six-figure jobs. "Instead, the Internet will help those professionals find better candidates in less time. It will also help good candidates find far more opportunities than they could find through networking alone."

For Those Searching For Employment, The Internet Can Be A Way To Go Beyond the Résumé and Showcase Talents And Skills
Many Are Wielding The Web As A Job-Hunting Tool

August 25, 2006 by Abby Terrell

For those job seekers who know how to take advantage of new Web sites and services, the Internet can give them an edge. From sites that allow job seekers to post biographies, photos and samples of their work -- along with a résumé -- to sites that provide detailed information about the companies job seekers are considering, it's getting easier to find the right job using the Internet.

Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com, a search engine that targets executive-level jobs, said that although high-tech résumés are appealing, the bottom line is still the information. "Just because a technology exists, that doesn't mean you should use it," Cenedella said. "Video résumés and things of that nature are always a big temptation for people but don't actually help you get the job. The recruiter wants to see your accomplishments."

Where The (Best) 6-figure Jobs Are

July 13, 2006 by Jeanne Sahadi

While entering six-figure territory can be a marker of a certain level of success, it's not always a marker of a lot of buying power.

In some cities, a $100,000 salary sounds a lot better than it is because the cost of living is high, taxes are high and, as Murphy's Law would have it, even the rate of inflation runs higher than in other parts of the country.

We asked job listing site TheLadders.com to provide us with a snapshot of where they have had the greatest number of listings for six-figure jobs in the past two months.

Predictably, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. were in the top 10. But there were also a relatively high number of such jobs in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Charlotte, NC.

Getting the Inside Scoop On a Future Boss
Web Sites Help Job Hunters Talk to Potential Colleagues

July 13, 2006 by Anjali Athavaley

There are now more ways to get the inside scoop about an employer – before you are hired.

In the latest expansion of the Web phenomenon of social networking, more sites are launching features that make it easier for job seekers to connect with the employees of prospective hirers. Still, before you gather around the virtual water cooler, keep in mind that on many sites, what you post can be viewed by anybody – including your current or future boss.

"It is very difficult to make the experience something other than disgruntled ex-employees venting about their former employer," says Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com, a Web site that posts jobs that pay more than $100,000. TheLadders.com has considered adding a space for employee comments but so far has rejected the idea. "We have not yet found the secret to eliminating that noise and distraction to make something of real value for the job seeker," he says.

Chief Executive Dad

June 20, 2006 by J.W. Elphinstone

Today's executives are working on being better fathers, while still handling the demands of a high-level position, according to one survey.

Two-thirds of executives who are also fathers said they spend more time with their children than their own fathers spent with them. Some are managing this by mixing work and family. For example, 31 percent of executives take their children along on business trips.

Executives are also staying in touch with their kids while at the office using today's technology. Three out of four stay connected by cell phone, while 56 percent touch base with e-mail.

More than three-fourths of executives have mementos of their children in the office. Photos and artwork are the most popular reminders, while four out of ten executive dads have a family screen saver or wallpaper on their computers.

Even though 72 percent of executive fathers sacrifice some family time for work, almost eight out of ten believe that being a father makes them a better professional.

The survey was conducted by TheLadders.com during the first week of June.

Move Over, Monster
Niche job-listing sites catch on among those looking for more-relevant searches

June 19, 2006 by Jeanette Borzo

Last year, when Craig Lund decided he wanted a new job, the media sales manager chose a common path: He posted his résumé on Internet job boards. In less than a month, he was named Toronto account director for Aquent Marketing Staffing, a division of Boston-based staffing consultants Aquent Inc. But Mr. Lund didn't land the job through one of the giant boards, like Monster.com or its Canadian equivalent, Workopolis.com. He found it on a much smaller site -- one that targets a select group of job seekers based on salary, profession and experience.

On TheLadders.com, a New York-based employment site geared toward professionals earning $100,000 or more, "the caliber of the jobs was far different from Workopolis and Monster," says Mr. Lund. (TheLadders.com recently entered a two-year subscription-sharing partnership with CareerJournal.com, a unit of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.) As the online job-listing market matures, niche sites, with their fewer and sometimes more relevant listings, are gaining in popularity. Like Mr. Lund, many job candidates have launched searches on both large and niche sites at the same time and say the niche sites produced faster results that were more targeted to their interests.

Not All Successful CEOs Are Extroverts

June 7, 2006 by Del Jones

It seems counter-intuitive, but introverts and closet introverts populate the highest corporate offices, so much so that four in 10 top executives test out to be introverts, a proportion only a little lower than the 50-50 split among the overall population age 40 and older.

Research on introverts and extroverts in leadership goes back at least to World War II and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test now given to about 2 million people a year.

In an online survey by TheLadders.com job site for USA TODAY of 1,542 senior-level managers making at least $100,000 a year found that only 6% think introverts make better CEOs, vs. 47% who say extroverts are better. A sizeable 47% say it makes no difference and that other factors matter more, but 65% say introversion is an impediment to climbing the ladder.

More Mothers Are Balancing Babies And Briefcases

May 15, 2006 by Sharon Linstedt

On this Monday after Mother's Day, it's time to declare Working Mother's Day.

While it's great to have a day that focuses on the nurturing, "hearth and home" side of mothers' work, there should also be a day to salute all the moms who perform the daily balancing act of keeping the home fires burning while stoking the engine of the American work place.

More moms than ever before are part of the working world, balancing babies with briefcases, and "Clean up in Aisle 3" with clean up at home. From doctors to teachers, waitresses to CEOs, there are now nearly 9 million working mothers in the U.S.

A new "moms and work" survey from TheLadders.com found that the Holy Grail for working mothers is flexibility. More than 70 percent of the women it surveyed said flexible schedules and opportunities to work from home are the greatest benefits that employers can provide.

Working

August 11, 2005

It seems that the best way to celebrate doing well on the job is to get as far away from the office as possible. Twenty-nine percent of executives who responded to a survey by TheLadders.com, a career site specializing in executive jobs, listed taking time off as their favorite way to mark major career milestones... The least attractive option of all: staying home (2.3 percent). Now, maybe if it were a new home . . .

Job Web Site Zeros in on Higher-Paying Work; $100,000 a Year and Up

August 10, 2005

Marc Cenedella knows all about job posting Web sites. He worked for about two years at HotJobs.com, helping to shepherd the sale of that company to Yahoo. Shortly after the Yahoo acquisition -- a $436 million deal that closed in February 2002 -- Cenedella left the company. Though out of a job, Cenedella wasn't out of ideas. A year later he started TheLadders.com, another employment posting site. TheLadders.com is no clone of HotJobs, though. The company focuses solely on jobs that pay $100,000 a year or more. And TheLadders charges job seekers for leads. Other sites, such as HotJobs and Monster Worldwide, charge companies to post their job listings… Why charge job seekers? 'Recruiting and head hunting firms say they get a deluge of inappropriate applicants when they post jobs on places like Monster and Craigslist. A cover charge keeps out inappropriate applicants. If you are a dishwasher, chances are you are not going to pay the $30 a month or $150 a year to look through the jobs.'

Is a Job Offer a Moving Experience?

August 9, 2005

A 'great' executive job offer just came through. It involves relocation. Would you take it? According to a survey by TheLadders.com, a job site for the $100,000-plus sector: 32 percent would "go anywhere in the U.S." 17 percent said they'd 'go to any G8 country outside of the U.S.' 17 percent said they'd 'go to a different state within the same region.' 15 percent said they'd 'go absolutely anywhere in the world.' 13 percent said they 'wouldn't relocate even for a great opportunity.' 6 percent said they'd move but would want to stay in their home state. Career counselors in the Kansas City area say that executives' desire to stay here -- once they're convinced to come here, in some cases -- has made many re-employment searches difficult in the last few years. Options increase with willingness to move.

Lily of the Valley

July 29, 2005

A survey by TheLadders.com caught Lily's eye this week. Seems executives seeking advancement are increasingly seeing an overseas assignment as 'an exciting opportunity,' according to the folks at 'the world's leading $100,000-plus jobs Web site.' While 23 percent said they wouldn't entertain an overseas posting, just 3 percent told pollsters 'concern over adapting to a new culture' was a factor. 'It's an absolute fact that multinational corporations groom their top talent in international posts,' said Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of The Ladders.com 'But just as the offer of an overseas assignment is likely to be a vote of confidence, a refusal to take that assignment can hinder an executive's ascent through the ranks.' That got Lily thinking: What would a similar poll in Bangalore show about the prospect of an overseas posting to Silicon Valley?

Job-seekers glum about 6-figure paychecks

July 2, 2005

If you think finding a high-paying job is tough, you're right. A quarter of job- seeking executives looking for positions paying more than $100,000 said they expect to be on the hunt for 6 to 12 months, according to second-quarter results of the Executive Employment Outlook, a survey by TheLadders.com…In Indianapolis, it could be even longer. The city didn't make the cut of the top five cities to find a $100,000-plus-per-year job... But execs, don't get discouraged. TheLadders.com, an executive job Web site, reports it has 4,000 more postings for $100,000-plus jobs than six months ago.

Inc Magazine

Is It Time to Raise Prices?
Boost your bottom line by taking the guesswork out of pricing.

June 2005 by Alison Stein Wellner

Marc Cenedella went through this process in 2003, when he was setting subscription rates for his start-up, TheLadders.com, an electronic job-search service that lists only positions paying more than $100,000. Most career sites allow job seekers to search for free and make money by charging employers. Cenedella's strategy is different: He charges job seekers and lets employers list their six-figure positions for free. After many meetings with "way too much pizza," Cenedella and his team arrived at their value figure: somewhere between $10,000 and $40,000. Their assumption was that a job seeker who used their site would find a position at least one month faster than one who didn't. Since that job would pay $100,000 or more, the value of the company's service translated to roughly one month's take-home pay, or somewhere between $10,000 and $40,000, depending on the job.

But starting at zero definitely limits how much you can charge. Cenedella priced a monthly subscription at $50 -- a number he admits to pulling out of thin air. Unsatisfied with the number of people signing up, he cut it to $35, and finally settled on $30. TheLadders.com now has nearly 300,000 subscribers, but Cenedella is far from satisfied. "From our point of view, we're charging only a fraction of the value we provide," he says. But he's stumped as to how to fix the situation.

TheLadders.com Appoints Brian Swette As Outside Board Member

June 7, 2005 by Erica R. Davis

TheLadders.com, a job search Web site that only lists positions paying more than $100,000 a year, today appointed Brian Swette to its board.

Currently retired, Swette was formerly the chief operating officer of eBay Inc. Prior to joining eBay, Swette was executive vice president and chief marketing officer for PepsiCo Inc. Swette's first position during his 17-year tenure at Pepsi was VP of Pepsi Latin America. Before that, Swette worked as a brand manager at The Procter & Gamble Co.

Jobs Blog: Online Leads For High-Paying Positions

June 6, 2005 by Sarah E. Needleman

Looking to expand your online job hunt beyond the big boards? Web sites and e-mail lists dedicated to postings in specific fields can supplement your search. Here's a look at niche job boards and e-mail newsletters from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

Job hunters after high-paying positions will findseveral sites ready to supply leads -- but unlike most job boards, the majority charge their customers money to use them.

Among them is TheLadders.com, posting only jobs with annual base salaries of $100,000 or more. To search the listings, you must sign up for membership, which starts at $30 a month and includes a weekly e-newsletter on job hunting. Annual subscribers also receive a 15-minute resume consultation by phone. About 5,000 new positions are listed every Monday, and there are about 40,000 jobs in all, says Marc Cenedella, president and chief executive officer of the New York-based job board. Postings are taken down after eight weeks, he says. For a preview, the site provides free access to 2,000 job postings that are two-weeks old.

Job Search Site TheLadders Names Sheila Marcelo VP, General Manager

June 1, 2005 by VentureWire Staff Reporters

TheLadders, a job search Web site that only lists positions paying more than $100,000 a year, said it has named Sheila Marcelo vice president and general manager, a newly created position.

Marcelo, who started in her new position in mid-April, is responsible for the management of business development as well as the company's product portfolio. She said she is also in charge of partnering with companies that provide job ads to TheLadders' site. "It's a very operational role," Marcelo said.

A Title That's Not As Boss as It Looks

May 29, 2005 by Patrick McGeehan

"It's easier to give somebody a fancier-sounding title than to give them a real bump in authority or pay," said Marc Cenedella, the president and chief executive of TheLadders.com, an executive job search site. "That's what any bureaucratic organization tends to do over time."

"The quirky titles from the dot-com boom have gone away," Mr. Cenedella said. Looking through his listing of 80,000 jobs, he said, he did not find any openings for chief evangelists, a title that once flourished in theSilicon Valley. But he had plenty of other listings for chiefs, including a chief diversity officer. He said he had recently seen a posting for a chief revenue enhancement officer.

In a survey of its customers early this year TheLadders.com found that 85 percent would pass up a bigger title for a 10 percent increase in pay. "Ultimately people don't care too much about your title," Mr. Cenedella said. "You're never going to get hired based on your title, in and of itself. A job title's more useful internally to your company and for how you feel you're viewed."

Age bias thwarts older job seekers

April 25, 2005 by Andrea Coombes

"Once you get into your early 50s, folks really begin to feel that their age is... a negative factor in that hiring decision," said Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com, an online job board focused on positions that pay $100,000 or more.

"We hear that all the time," he said. Sixty-nine percent of executives said they'd been victims of age discrimination, according to a recent survey of members of TheLadders.com.

Job site moves headquarters to Soho

April 24, 2005 by Andrea Coombes

TheLadders.com, a jobs Web site operator, said today that it has relocated its headquarters to Soho from its previous space in Chelsea.

TheLadders.com says the new 12,000-square-foot headquarters, located at 137 Varick St., brings it closer to Wall Street as well as to a number of Internet and graphic design firms. The company lists positions, which carry six-figure salaries, in finance, marketing and sales, as well as in human resources, technology, legal and operations.

MULTILINGUALISM

April 19, 2005 by Andrea Coombes

Even in an age of globalization, many Americans take a provincial view toward business communication: The world speaks English, right? Yet many U.S. companies are now stressing the importance of learning new languages to facilitate commerce, efficiency and business relationships.

But which is considered most useful? Spanish by far, according to a survey of nearly 1,500 business executives last month. Sixty-one percent cited Spanish as the most useful in their jobs, followed by Chinese, selected by 16 percent.

ASK ANNIE: Will Going to B-School Help Me Win a Big Raise?

April 18, 2005 by Anne Fisher

With the average salary of business school graduates now topping $82,000 and some elite schools boasting average graduate school salaries well into the $100,000-plus range, it may seem that getting an MBA is the ticket to financial security," observes Marc Cenedella, who runs The Ladders.com, an online job board for executives earning $100,000 or more. However, the website recently surveyed 1,521 senior executives and found that the majority (57%) believe that, to get ahead in their companies, an MBA is "nice, but not necessary." About one in four (24%) said an MBA is "very important"; 17% called the degree "unimportant."

"An MBA can be a fantastic credential, because it's not just a diploma, it's a whole network of shared experiences," Cenedella says. "But it's important for managers to focus on precisely how an MBA could further their careers. No degree can guarantee success." In other words, you need to make a long-range plan-one that covers what you hope to accomplish as well as how big a raise you'd like-and then figure out whether you really need an MBA to get there.

Job Search Site TheLadders Names Andrew Kaslow To Board

April 13, 2005 by Marine Cole

TheLadders, a job search Web site that only lists positions paying more than $100,000 a year, said it has named Andrew J. Kaslow to its board, a new addition.

Previously, he served as senior executive vice president of human resources at Vivendi Universal SA in Paris. He joined Vivendi from AOL Time Warner, now called Time Warner Inc., where he was SVP of people development. In his career, he also worked as SVP of human resources at Time Warner prior to the merger with America Online Inc., and for Becton Dickinson and Co., and PepsiCo Inc.

BALANCING ACT: Find the time to seek a better job

April 13, 2005

"It is so easy online to waste time," says Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com. 'You see a job description and you say, 'I can do that.' So you spend time applying for 15 jobs you are not right for. It gives you a false sense of productivity."

Cenedella says his website posts 4,500 jobs each week. His suggestions: Set a goal of sending out five job applications three nights a week to those jobs you feel most qualified to fill. If you want to switch careers, in three sentences in your cover letter explain why it makes sense for the employer to hire someone without experience in that industry.

"Even in the absolute best economic climate, landing your next great job does not always happen overnight," explained Cenedella of TheLadders.com. ''But the jobs are out there."

Social-Networking Sites Catch the Eye of Employers

March 29, 2005

Many recent college graduates and young professionals are avid users of social-networking sites that are blossoming across the Internet. But as Mr. Silverman's case makes clear, the information on these sites can leak into a job search, sometimes hurting one's chances of landing a position... At some companies, such as TheLadders.com, a New York-based company that helps people find high-salary jobs, hiring managers would rather see an innocent, uncensored profile on Friendster or Tribe. Dagny Prieto, the director in charge of hiring graphic designers, Web site coders, and writers, regularly uses Friendster to look at job applicants before interviewing them. "Friendstering" is the next step after Googling, she says, because applicants' profiles are filled with clues about what they might be like to work with. "Someone will come in [for an in-person interview], be all buttoned-up and seem very proper, but you know you just saw their profile, and on it, their friends were talking about how they were wild and crazy and party seven nights a week," she says. For Ms. Prieto, that's fine. "I want to know what your real personality is like," she says. However, bad grammar or typos, even on candidates' friends' pages, give her second thoughts.

Many CEOs take Ebbers' crime personally, want tough sentence

March 28, 2005

"Convicted WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers may be lucky that fellow chief executives won't be handing out his sentence on June 13. CEO sympathy for Ebbers is sparse. Animosity is widespread... Ebbers was convicted of an $11 billion fraud this month. An unscientific survey of 838 executives for USA TODAY by TheLadders, an Internet job site for those making $100,000 to $500,000, found that 71% want Ebbers to get 10 years or more. A separate survey at the Inc. 500 Conference this month found that 59% of the founders of the fastest-growing companies say Ebbers deserves at least 10 years, and half of those say it should be at least 25."

How To Battle the Coming Brain Drain

March 7, 2005

Older workers are retiring in droves. How do you prevent their crucial knowledge from leaving with them... Happily for employers, phased retirement appeals to a lot of people of baby-boom age and beyond... In a poll conducted for FORTUNE by TheLadders.com—a job site for executives earning $100,000-plus a year—51% say they plan to keep on working after they retire from their current careers. By contrast, only 16% aspire to the more traditional ideal of dropping out of the workforce entirely.

Jumping Ship To Rev Up A Stalled Career

February 15, 2005

Many executives get restless as dull years turn into dull decades in the corporate world. Some fantasize about early retirement. But others long for the thrill and agility of working for a much smaller company, or even a start-up. 'In a bust people are frightened—if they jump to the next job, what if it doesn't work out?' says Marc Cenedella, president and chief executive officer of TheLadders.com, an executive job-search service based in New York. A better job market gives people a greater sense of security, he says.

Mr. Cenedella speaks from experience. He left career Web site HotJobs.com as senior vice president of finance and operations in 2002 and started TheLadders in the summer of 2003. He worked without pay until March 2004, and even then was making only about one-eighth of his former compensation. 'But I was eight times happier,' he says. A year and a half after starting the company, his compensation is 'reapproaching' what he made at HotJobs. The company now has 45 employees. He suggests people ask themselves a few questions while contemplating such a move. The most important one: Will you be happier in a much smaller environment? At a start-up, each worker has to take on more roles. 'I was chief garbage collector, the senior vice president of customer service and head fund-raiser,' he says. 'I love that environment, but for a lot of people, it's not suitable.'

The Count: How Many Executives Love the Colleague They're Near?

February 13, 2005

Love everlasting is indeed a fine and glorious thing. Just think of the towering "Brigadoon" passion that lasts centuries, outliving lesser mortals. But then there's the more fragile, fickle kind, the kind that Yip Harburg described so mischievously in this "Finian's Rainbow" lyric: "When I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near."

For corporate types, who exactly is nearby most of the day? Co-workers, of course. And that can cause problems.

So, just in time to toss a bit of cold water on that great marketing opportunity known as Valentine's Day, TheLadders, an executive job search service, tried to discern just how often Mr. Harburg's theory becomes reality.

In three related surveys of well-paid executives, it found that 68 percent had at some point looked longingly at a colleague, and 42 percent had plunged into an office romance. But mix in the factor of at least one being married, and fully 17 percent acknowledged that proximity had trumped fidelity. That's where it gets dicey.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cupid in the cubicles

February 12, 2005

There are plenty of hearts and flowers at workplaces across the country, as Valentine's Day demonstrates every year. Here's a rundown on all that romance... Two-thirds of U.S. executives have harbored secret crushes on a co-worker, according to a poll by TheLadders.com, an executive job-postings site. Forty-two percent said they've had office romances.

TheLadders.com Finds Way Into Super Bowl

February 7, 2005

When Alexandre Douzet was director of online marketing at HotJobs.com, he routinely recommended buying Super Bowl spots. 'With the Super Bowl, you can build your brand overnight,' said Douzet, now VP of operations at TheLadders.com, a high-end recruiting site. 'But it does not work for everybody...' Still, Douzet has found a way around that for TheLadders.com. For this year's Super Bowl, Douzet orchestrated a local buy in seven major markets, including Boston and Philadelphia (where ratings should be highest). Douzet said that he waited until the day after the conference championship games were decided to enact the buy, which consisted of 25 TV spots during the pre-game and pre-kickoff segments for roughly $50,000.

TheLadders.com Wants Executive Job Seekers to Start Climbing

December 23, 2004

High-end executive job search site TheLadders.com breaks a direct response television campaign next month on national cable and satellite to attract qualified job seekers to its service. The goal of the campaign is to generate awareness and increase job-seeker registration, said Alexandre Douzet, co-founder and vice president of operations at TheLadders.com, New York. The more people in this market who know about us, the faster we'll continue to grow, adding more and more jobs along the way.

Stretching the Truth When Job Hunting

December 23, 2004

Many applicants go after jobs that are 'out of their league' assuming they will grow into them, says Marc Cenedella, president and chief executive officer of TheLadders.com, a New York executive job search service. 'Americans are a nation of strivers,' he says. 'People believe they have to create their own destiny, create their own luck. Being aggressive and optimistic about what you can do with your skills' is part of that. It's one of the trickiest balancing acts in a career: Stretching for a job without falling off a cliff. One of the main reasons people look for new jobs is that they want more responsibility along with higher pay that usually goes with that. But there is a fine line between stretching just enough and too much. It's a dilemma not just for job seekers, but also for the hiring executives.'

Orlando Sentinel

High-Level Job Hopping

November 10, 2004

More than half of high-end U.S. executives have changed jobs three or more times in the past 10 years, according to an October survey by the online executive job-search company, TheLadders.com... 'While it is good to have a few career stops on your resume, there is a stigma that comes with excessive job-hopping,' says TheLadders.com president Marc Cenedella. 'People at the higher levels of the corporate structure often need two or more years to fully implement programs, get some results and have an impact on the job.' The survey of executives making $100,000 or more a year found that 21 percent had one job change in the past 10 years; 23 percent had two job changes in that period.

Louisville Courier-Journal

Working Frome Home Low Priority for Execs

November 8, 2004

Here is a perk that is off-limits for top brass: Working from home.

Telecommuting is ranked as a priority by 19 percent of managers earning $100,000 or more, according to a survey of 1,078 executives by TheLadders.com, an executive job search service.

Senior executives realize they must be visible and available if they want to do well. But that doesn't mean executives wouldn't like to have the perk.

"While few of the survey respondents ranked working from home as a very important perk, almost 37 percent would take advantage of it if it was offered," said TheLadders.com.

The survey also found that 34 percent of the executives surveyed said the flexibility to work from home is important, but not a deal-breaker. Ten percent said they'd rather not have the option.

HR Magazine

Tarnished Employment Brands Affect Recruiting

November 1, 2004

A company's name precedes it in the marketplace-and can affect its ability to recruit new talent. In a recent online survey conducted by TheLadders.com, an executive job search service, 83 percent of the survey's 1,020 respondents rated a company's record of business ethics 'very important' when deciding whether to accept a job offer. Only 2 percent rated it 'unimportant,' and 15 percent said it was 'important, but not a deal breaker.' Marc Cenedella, TheLadders founder and president, says executives 'clearly see the public images of the companies they work for as a reflection of their own credibility in the marketplace. In companies like Enron, where there is systemic misbehavior across all levels of the company,' he says, 'folks don't want to be in that environment.''

Job Hopping Rate

November 1, 2004

Executives at the high end of the pay scale are likely to have switched jobs between one and three times during the last 10 years.

The most common number of job changes in a 10-year period was three, says TheLadders.com, an online recruiting firm. Twenty-four percent of its respondents say that's how often they changed jobs. Following closely behind, 23% made two job changes and 21% made just one in a 10-year span.

"While it is good to have a few career stops on your resume, there is a stigma that comes with excessive job-hopping," said TheLadders.com founder and President Marc Cenedella. "People at the higher levels of the corporate structure often need two or more years to fully implement programs, get some results and have an impact on the job. For that reason, candidates with five and six job changes in a 10-year period automatically raise red flags for recruiters and hiring managers."

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Talking politics in your workplace is natural, but...

October 24, 2004

[Marc] Cenedella, founder and president of the New York-based executive search service TheLadders.com, said politics is entering the workplace in a dangerous way this season. A survey of 736 job-search executives by TheLadders.com found 11 percent had been asked their presidential preference during the interview process. 'It's an active political season, and emotions spill over into the workplace, so in a way I'm not surprised by that,' Cenedella says. 'But, in an interview context, no real good can come of this...' Cenedella even encourages people to avoid expressing political preferences at work, for fear they might antagonize someone who doesn't share their politics but has power over them. He is certain, though, that American workplaces will be filled with political discussions.'A good, vigorous debate is healthy,' he says. 'And when you have talented and bright people, they will have passions and interests all over the map. But as a company, we're a team, and we all have to work together. You don't want to upset that.'

Orlando Sentinel

If they ask, don't tell

October 20, 2004

It's great to live in a country where we are free to express our political opinions, but here's a little caveat: During a job interview, keep your political opinions to yourself. Don't think the subject will come up? You're probably right, but according to a new survey of job-seeking executives, 11 percent were asked whom they planned to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. The survey was conducted by TheLadders.com, a New York company offering online job-search services to high-level executives (those making at least $100,000 a year). The survey didn't say how many of those 11 percent were dumb enough to answer the question. But, 'personal politics should be avoided at all costs in the hiring process,' says Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com.

USA Today

Even bosses are getting into the telecommuting business

October 19, 2004

Forget about the coveted corner office. As telecommuting grows in popularity, more executives are turning down the sought-after perk and instead working from home... Nearly 20% of executives looking for jobs paying at least six figures ranked working from home as a very important priority, according to a July survey of 1,078 managers by TheLadders.com, a New York-based executive job service. Nearly 40% said they would take advantage of telecommuting if it was offered, and 34% said such flexibility was important but not a deal breaker. Only 10% weren't interested at all.

Kansas City Star

Party politics can be a factor in interview

October 19, 2004

About one in 10 job hunters are being asked questions in job interviews about their political leanings, particularly about which presidential candidate they prefer.

According to a survey of 736 job candidates by TheLadders.com, an executive job search service, politics don't come up in most job interviews—which is good. It's not illegal to ask about election preferences in a job interview, but it can be polarizing and irrelevant to the job. Some of the survey respondents said they thought their interviews ended poorly when the subject came up.

Dow Jones

Executives say no thanks to Enron

October 19, 2004

When a company is looking for new executives, the aroma of scandal is, of course, a dismal recruiting tool, according to a New York Times article. But some odors are more potent than others, as shown in a survey by TheLadders, an executive job search service. Asked about going to work at various companies, respondents gave the biggest thumbs down to Enron Corp.; 72% said they would turn down a job there.'

A Week's Worth

October 18, 2004

Getting political: Better than 1 in 10 executives have been asked whom they would vote for during a job interview, according to a survey by executive job-search service TheLadders.com. It's not illegal during an interview, but federal, state, and local laws do protect employees from threats, discipline, retaliation, and rewards for their political decisions.

The Florida Times Union

Numbers Game

October 17, 2004

11 PERCENT: The percentage of executive job seekers, according to TheLadders.com, who were asked who they were voting for in the presidential election. It's not illegal to refuse to hire someone because of their political preferences.

'Hi, Enron Calling. Do You Want a Job?' 'Uh, I'll Call You'

October 17, 2004

When a company is looking for new executives, the aroma of scandal is, of course, a dismal recruiting tool. But some odors are more potent than others, as shown in a survey by TheLadders, an executive job search service.

Asked about going to work at various companies, respondents gave the biggest thumbs down to Enron; 72 percent said they would turn down a job there. But WorldCom and Adelphia Communications—whose names have also become synonymous with corporate sleight-of-balance-sheet—ran close behind.

As for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, executives couldn't seem to make up their minds, with 51 percent saying thanks but no thanks to a position there.

Flip some of the figures around, though, and you will see something puzzling: fully 28 percent would take an executive job at Enron—even though all but 17 percent of those surveyed said that a company's reputation was a 'very important factor' in picking an employer.

Firm's Reputation Important To Execs

October 4, 2004

Corporate reputation is a major factor for job seekers at the top of the pay scale, says a survey conducted by executive job search service TheLadders.com. 83% of the survey's 1,020 respondents say a company's record of business ethics is 'very important' when deciding to accept a job offer. Only 2% of executives responding to the survey say the company's record of business ethics is altogether 'unimportant,' and 15% say it is 'important, but not a deal breaker.'

The Jungle

September 28, 2004

In this season of polls, TheLadders.com, a job board in New York for people seeking jobs with salaries over $100,000, recently asked site members, 'Have you ever been asked to state your voting intentions for this year's presidential race during an interview?' A surprising 82 people, or about 11% of 736 respondents, clicked 'yes'... 'I don't think people were accidentally hitting one button, it looks like it was a real 10%' based on accounts provided by some respondents, says Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of the job site. 'As a topic that is going to create potential dynamite in an interview, voting preference would be the most explosive issue people are facing,' he adds.'

In Cyberspace, New Rules for Your Resume

September 13, 2004

'The Internet has changed the job hunt,' says Marc Cenedella, president of TheLadders.com, an employment website and e-newsletter. 'Executives' average job tenure in our country is four years. If you haven't done something in four years, you're pretty rusty at it. For [those] who have spent even more time in one position, they will be surprised at how much the market has changed.' For instance, job seekers used to send out resumes to 10 to 20 people at a time, but now they might e-mail thousands of resumes just to get a few replies, says Mr. Cenedella. So don't be afraid to send them out—one per company—to as many companies as possible, he counsels.'

Execs not big on working from home

August 31, 2004

Senior execs and face time: One factor critical to the success of work/life programs at the nation's businesses is just how strongly the people managing the company are behind them: A family-friendly workplace has to come from the top down... According to a survey of 1,078 executives earning $100,000 or more annually by TheLadders.com, an executive job search service based in New York, "only 18.7 percent of the executives surveyed ranked working from home as a 'very important' priority. Marc Cenedella, founder and president of TheLadders, reports that 'our clientele, who represent a cross section of the nation's top $100K-plus talent, obviously believe that distance can be a distraction and that [face time] beats the glow of a home desktop when it comes to doing great work at senior levels.'

Top execs could improve their resumes

August 30, 2004

“Job seekers at the top of the pay scale doubt the quality of their resumes.  ‘The growth of online recruiting has placed significant emphasis on the first line of communication, making an airtight resume absolutely essential,’ said Marc Cendella of TheLadders.com.”

Working from home low on priority list

July 25, 2004

Telecommuting from home is ranked a top priority by just 18.7 percent of managers earning $100,000 or more, according to a survey of 1,078 executives by TheLadders.com, an online executive job search service.

Senior executives realize they are required to be visible and available if they want to do well. That doesn't mean executives wouldn't like to have the perk, however. "While few of the survey respondents ranked working from home as a very important perk, almost 37 percent would take advantage of it if it was offered," said TheLadders.com. The survey also found that 34.3 percent of the executives surveyed said the flexibility to work from home is important, but not a deal-breaker. Just 10.4 percent of those surveyed said they'd rather not have the option at all.

Best of the Web

July 2004

If you earn more than $100,000 per year and you're tired of wading through entry-level positions on other sites, try visiting TheLadders.com. The site is broken into three different sites, for different job types: FinanceLadder, MktgLadder and SalesLadder. Each of these sites offers a newsletter filled with job postings (about 500 per week) in the $100,000-$500,000 range... Sites don't take money from companies whose jobs are listed or from headhunting firms. SalesLadder, for instance, claims to list only the best 4% of jobs that are sent in to it.

How To Ruin an Online Job Hunt

June 28, 2004

Looking for a job online? Sending your resume all over creation and getting nowhere? Sure, the job market is still wobbly, but it's also possible that you're inadvertently tripping over your own feet. "When it comes to using the Internet to find a job, a lot of very smart people are making some very stupid mistakes," says Marc Cenedella, a former senior vice president at HotJobs.com who's now president of TheLadders.com, a newsletter and job board for $100,000-a-year-plus executives. Having looked at thousands of resumes, he finds it "kind of amazing how many blunders are committed by some of the most talented people in the world." Why is that? "Most senior managers are just not skilled job seekers. It's something they haven't had to do very often in their lives, so they've never gotten good at it," Cenedella says. "Then you add a high level of stress and anxiety to the equation, and it seems that people often just aren't thinking very clearly."